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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dina NayeriB0FK5LHKD9|title= RefugeThe Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating= 54|genre= General Fiction|summary= Sinking boats in stormy seas, national borders boosted with barbed wire, and overcrowded shelters – the mediaIt's portrayal of seeking asylum focuses on the process in its darkestbeen three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, most dangerous form. What happens after tumultuous journeys and temporary shelter is not news; and life after decades in the so we were very glad to see a new country is rarely headline material eithernovel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. But in Dina NayeriLike all Bowden's stories, there's a mystery at the heart of 'Refuge'The Colour of Money', '. We like this running theme in an author's work - take a mystery but give it is the life after that takes centre stagedifferent flavour and atmosphere each time. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0735219389</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hawa L CrickmoreSaou Ichikawa and Polly Barton (translator)|title=Across the OceanHunchback

|summary=A young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, I was diagnosed with in the middle of a rare genetic disorder which required a boneself-imposed book-marrow transplantbuying ban when I made an exception for this one. What first drew me in was the book's bold fuchsia cover, preferably from followed by its striking title: ''Hunchback''. This is a siblingword I recognised to be loaded with historical and cultural baggage, often used to dehumanise or reduce. Only recently he'd been Curious, I leaned over the display table and turned to the back inside cover. There, I discovered the author: Saou Ichikawa, a fit young manwoman diagnosed in childhood with congenital myopathy, a condition that causes severe muscular weakness and touches every aspect of her life. The title took on new complexity in light of her biography. I had to read it.|isbn=0241700787}}{{Frontpage|author=Jen Beagin|title=Big Swiss|rating=4.5|genre=Humour |summary=I found the prime premise of lifethis book totally original and addictive. Greta possesses the power to know the population of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and fears. How? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Sure, but now he was suffering from there's a rare type of bone cancer: without confidentiality agreement, as the transplant he would be paralysed sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, but that just makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in life and might be dead within , Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive safety of the transplant within wall and buzz far too close to the next fourteen dayssun. Unfortunately MartinThe sun in this analogy is the sex coach's parents had died in a car crash newest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, like the sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful - and there were no siblings or other close relativesirresistible to Greta. His girlfriendSuddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the ethics of her professional position, Celiaher loyalties to Om, was not a matchfly out of the window. She's in too deep.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk>0571378579

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Elif Shafak1784745758|title= Three Daughters of EveDays in June|author=Anne Tyler

|genre= General Fiction|summary=Set in Istanbul in 2016, The day before your daughter''Three Daughters of Eve'' centres on Peris wedding will always be busy but Gail Baines got far more than she asked for. First, a Turkish woman who finds herself thinking back to it was her years job as assistant head at Oxford University to distract herself from the local school. There was a boring dinner party. Her reminiscing is triggered moment when she finds an old polaroid hoped that she would be promoted to head but the discussion moved into the subject of herself, her friends Mona 'people skills' and Shirinbefore she knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, and depending on who was explaining the rebellious Professor Azursituation. Much When she got home (in the middle of her thoughts revolve around the scandal day: who would have thought that prevented could happen?) her from graduating from her dream universityex-husband was there with a cat. He thinks that he'll be staying and that Gail will be adopting the cat. More of a commentary on religion than a story, And that's before Gail discovers that the novel asks many questions groom hasn't been entirely honest about faith - in particular, Islam - and whether its customs and traditions can be adapted to suit modern his personal life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241978882</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Andre AlexisSamantha Harvey|title= The Hidden KeysOrbital|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Tancred Palmieri is a talented thief thrown into the path of Willow Azarian an eccentricIn 2024, unpredictable heroin addict. She is also part of Samantha Harvey won the Azarian dynastyBooker Prize for ''Orbital'', bequeathed almost a million dollars upon her father's death. Each compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of the Azarian children were also gifted a deeply personal memento mori, which Willow is convinced make up an intricate treasure hunt. She enlists the help group of Tancred to steal each item, solve astronauts aboard the mystery and prove she is not blindly following International Space Station. Through a baseless fantasy. Tancred must use all his skills to infiltrate narrative lens that mirrors the homes of each of Willowastronauts's siblingsorbital perspective, uncover the clues hidden Harvey invites readers to see our planet in each item and fight off the rival interests of competing criminals and the policea wholly new light.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781258422</amazonuk>1529922933

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Alison Jean LesterHan Kang|title= Yuki Means HappinessThe Vegetarian|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= High-tech and high-riseThis novel, kimonos, and big-eyed visuals – through a dynamic juxtaposition winner of the ultra modern International Booker Prize in 2016 and penned by an author who received the traditionalNobel Prize for Literature this year, Japan has succeeded in branding itself both is as an intriguing travel destination that does not cease close to surprise, but at the same time defies being ever wholly full understood by outsidersunputdownable as it gets. All of this has come It more than lives up to be encapsulated and reinforced in Sofia Coppola's cult classic ''Lost in Translation'': the iconic still of Scarlett Johansson standing at the scramble crossing in Shibuya has come to represent Japan in pop culture as much as the more traditional cherry blossom imageryacclaim. The story introduces uncanny characters with fragile, vividly tangible bodies yet unknowable, elusive souls. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848549628</amazonuk>1803510056

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= S V BerlinSally Rooney|title= The FavouriteIntermezzo|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Siblings Edward Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and Isobel Vernon haven't spoken in years and live on opposite sides is something of the Atlantica grandmaster at putting it into words. When their mother Mary dies unexpectedlyHer dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they are thrown together feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to sort through unravel is the family homefraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. With Edward's diffident but devoted girlfriendIvan, Julie, making an a socially awkward threesomechess prodigy, each stumbles through the practicalities of funeral preparation and house clearingcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, trying to make sense of a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their emotions and their feelings toward one another. Isobel makes father's passing after a disturbing discovery and her fateful decision has consequences for all of themlong battle with cancer, challenging their beliefs about the past, hopes for the future and understanding of Marybrothers's role in keeping them at once apart and togetheralready strained relationship faces new trials. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0993563384</amazonuk>0571365469

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Claiborne JohnsonB0DGDJRHYD|title=Be Frank with MeNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone

|summary=In June 2009 Isaac Vargas sends a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his assistantfinal plans. A meticulous man, twenty-four-year-old Alice Whitleyhe makes sure of every preparation, down to Bel Airthe last detail. Some last reflections, California and then he says goodbye to help Mimi Gillespie produce her long-awaited second novel. Under his wife, the name Mworld, and his life.MIt's horribly sad. Banning, Mimi issued a wildly successful novel back At work in the 1970sher shop, ''Pitched''his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, which quickly became a modern classic on every American adolescent's list of assigned reading for schoolwho needs extricating from yet another accident. She's the sort of figure Harper Lee was for decades: It will be a one-hit literary wonder and an infamous recluse. But there's one key difference here: Mimi while before Diana realises what Patrick has a nine-year-old son, Frankdone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782399208</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kay Langdale1739526910|title=The Way Back to UsWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4.5

|summary=A household revolves around its weakest member and because it's revolving there'One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's always a danger that some people - such as a spouse - will be spun to the outsidelife, whilst other children, loosely attached he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to the main carer will be recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at a distancehis former manager’s holiday home, never completely close, but never escaping eitherhe dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. In the centre are the carer and the person who needs that careBut as those tentative plans falter, bonded together he becomes swept up in such a way that it's actually difficult to offer help or even friendshiplocal world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities. So it is with Anna and Teddy, who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA as it's generally known. He's five now, confined to a wheelchair or his Whizzybug and not putting on much weight as chewing and swallowing are difficult.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473618363</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Hendrik Groen and Hester Velmans (translator)Jenny Lecoat|title= The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ years OldBeyond Summerland|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= As Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the old adage goeswar, to walk a mile in someone elseJean's shoes is father was arrested for listening to gain some understanding a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of what it is to be that personhim. Admittedly As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, Hendrik Groen isn't much up for long walks any moreand the war is finally over, but he does acquire a swish mobility scooter to zoom around in; one could say their hopes rise that we get to zoom they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as a mile in Groen's shoes, and ohrelief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what fun shoes he wears!other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405924004</amazonuk>1846976537

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sarah FranklinOnyi Nwabineli|title= ShelterAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical General Fiction|summary=Connie Granger has escaped Anuri spent her bombedchildhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-out city homemother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, finding refuge in the Womenwhere she posted every step of Anuri's Timber Corpschildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. For Now Anuri is in hertwenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, this remote community must now serve a secret purposesuing her step-mother to take down the content about her.<br>Seppe Anuri is battling alcoholism, an Italian prisoner of warfailing to start her PhD, is haunted by his memoriesundergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. In the forest camp Most importantly, he finds a strange kind of freedom.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But as they are drawn togethershe is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the world outside their forest haven is being torn apartnew focus of Ophelia's online empire. Old certainties are crumbling Can she save her sister, and both must now make a life-defining choice.<br>What price will they pay for freedom? What will they fight to protectperhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785762990</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer McVeigh1529153298|title=Leopard at the DoorThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|summary=18 year old Rachel Fullsmith returns home to Kenya after being away at school in England It's 1979 and finds a lot can change in 6 yearsMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) Of course she realises her motherShe's death would alter things but shenot what's not prepared for her fatherworrying Miv's live-in family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared'companiondoesn' Sara nor Sarat sound quite so frightening. Miv's son Harold sleeping in Rachelupset because she's old roomoverheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. Michael the Kikuyu servant boy she grew up with When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is still there though and now a man with his own ideasfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. Meanwhile For Miv, the unrest between the British rulers move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the local Mau Mau fighters is increasing and about dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to blowanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241247616</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lucy Daniels1035906708|title= Summer at Hope MeadowsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Animal Ark'' was a popular series We tend to think of children's books written between 1994 and 2008. The stories focus on a young girl called Mandy HopeMaria Callas as Greek, the daughter of two vets who run a practicebut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, Animal ArkNew York, in the Yorkshire town of WelfordDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Along with Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her best friend James, the children seek father changed it to 'Callas' to help out creatures make it more manageable in needthe States. The series consisted of 94 books When she was back in total and Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was written raised under the Nazi occupation by a collection mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of authors writing under the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. ''Summer at Hope Meadows'' is the first in a new series her preference for adult readersher elder sister, continuing grown-up Mandy's story now that she is a fully qualified vetJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473653878</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie Divry and Alison Anderson (translator)Alexander McCall Smith|title=Madame Bovary of the SuburbsThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=24.5

|summary=''It starts with becoming The Perfect Passion Company is a homeownerdating agency in Edinburgh, then settling run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps inproviding a more personal, then reproducingtailored service.'' WellNess has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, it actually starts as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a lot before then, while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a set of fractured memories of our heroine's childhood – things she recalls her parents bad boyfriend, and relatives saying both so jumps at the chance to and about hercome home to Edinburgh. It goes through her childhoodAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, and pen letters bringing us to a best friend conveying her wishes for her lifean Edinburgh we already love, those wishes being revised thanks to 44 Scotland Street and affirmed by the liberty of university yearsIsabel Dalhousie novels, those wishes being met but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or denied by married life… Someone archly could point out that you should be careful what you wish forin match-making, but not even our wiseNess has full confidence in her abilities, modern woman could not see the next step after the reproducing – and there''standing disappointed in front of the refrigerator''.s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857054686</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tania HershmanDean Koontz|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=Short Stories Paranormal|summary=I wonBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it't be alone in stating s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that reading short story collections can be slightly awkwardhas trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. Going through from A-Zreally nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, witnessing who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a bounty good person. Spike is going to take care of ideas Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and characters Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in short order can be too muchBoston, but do you have the right having been sent to pick live with a family who run an inn, and choose according being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to what appealsbe a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and what time you have to fill? watch. The sequence has carefully been consideredEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, surelyHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. Such would appear She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to be sea, dressing as a boy and joining the case herenotorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. The last time I read one She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of this life on the ocean waves.|isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's collectionsa control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]]Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing themmore you read, but here the more you 'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not only get fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sectionshead.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CKD1L5JL|title=Radio Free Olympia|amazonukauthor=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>Jeffrey Dunn|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the forest, broadcasting the strange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jane JohnsonSarah Marsh|title= Court A Sign of LionsHer Own|rating= 3.5|genre= Historical General Fiction |summary= Kate Fordham arrived in the sunlit city of Granada After a year ago. In the shadow bout of the Alhambra, one of the most beautiful places on earth, she works scarlet fever as a waitress serving tourists in child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a busy bar. She pretends she's happy with her new life – but how could she be? Kate's aloneworld of silence, afraid and hiding under a false name. And fate is everything about to bring her face-to-face with her greatest fearlife changes. Five centuries ago, Living in a messagetime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, in Ellen is sent to a hand few could school where she is taught to lip read, was inscribed but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in blood on another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a stolen scrap of papersystem called Visible Speech. The paper was folded and pressed into one of At the Alhambra's walls. There it has lainsame time, undisturbed by the tides of history – the Fall of Granada, the expulsion of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers it. Born of loveBell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a time complicated tangle of danger and desperation, the fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life foreverespionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786694336</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0BC3YTCMR|title=Good Girls Die|author=Julie CohenAyura Ayira|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to his house and he raped her. In shock, she even allowed him to give her a lift home.}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=TogetherThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary=This is a love story told backwardsIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, in the most beautiful mannerGreek by birth, so that we know from had left the very beginning that Emily family home and Robert love each other enormouslyrefused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that he is about it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to break her heart the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the most dreadful way in order first of several annual visits. She grew to protect a secret that theylove her grandmother and the family've lived with for decadess maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. Seeing their love unfold His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in reverse is beautifula bio-hazard accident. We get Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to know them once they have already gotten to know each other, him – and only him – as he sits up and it makes for an unusual looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and interesting structureformer colleagues. The secret they hold As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is referred to throughout, but it something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't revealed until very late in the book''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and poor. IIt'm guessing very few readers will figure it outs surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. Even once you knowThe black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, you want to go back and read even gallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the whole story again in village and that is the light reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of the information you now holda man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409171744</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kate MildenhallB0BYF82CXT|title= SkylarkingSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction |summary= Kate ''Bill and Harriet Amanda are best friends growing up together on an isolated Australian cape. As the daughters of the lighthouse keepersliving in a semi-detached house, the two girls share everything, until stuck in a fishermandepressing rut of boredom and disappointment, McPhailwhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, arrives successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their small community. When Kate witnesses different outlooks on life, the desire that flares between him couples befriend each other and Harrietlife appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, she is torn by her feelings of envy and longingtheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. An innocent moment in McPhail's hut then occurs that threatens to tear their peaceful community apart. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079239</amazonuk>'

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Zoe DuncanShalini Boland|title= The Shifting PoolsSilent Bride|rating= 2.53|genre= General Fiction|summary= Perhaps the most overused phrase Alice and Seth are a match made in fiction publishing heaven. He is ''lifeeverything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-affirming'', closely followed by ''human condition''material. The Shifting Pools takes this to She is all he could possibly want in a whole new level. Its blurb boasts that it wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is ''charged throughout with eagerly accepted by Alice and the beautiful urgency of life'', whatever that meanswedding is planned and set. It isn't. And that's When the problem. This isn't a bad bookmuch-anticipated day arrives, but it sets itself up to fail. A cardinal rule of writing Alice is ''focus on walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the small stuff''. If you set out congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to write a face his approaching bride, Alice''life affirming'' novel that answers all s world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the ''big questions''altar is, you'll struggle. And it who is this trap that Zoe Duncan falls into. In her quest waiting for profundity she loses her wayto become his wife. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785630369</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Healy1787636003|title= The Sisters ChaseGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Mary and Bunny. That's how it has always been ever since Bunny It was born. Two sisters with an unbreakable bond, twisted together so tight the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that they were two sides of she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the same coinisland. Bunny was Mary Rachel wasn's whole world; nothing else really mattered; school...friends...boys...well, maybe one boy, t exactly innocent but he she was something altogether extraordinary. When the unthinkable happened, Mary and Bunny found themselves completely alone in the worldperhaps, naive, and that's so when Mary decided thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an unforgettable road tripinterest in her, just the two she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of themphysical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, across looking after his interests on the United States, island and in particular in search of a place the bar where they could belongall the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0544960076</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joy RhoadesAmanda Craig|title=The Woolgrower's CompanionThree Graces|rating=4.5

|summary=1945: The war is in its dying days and creating problems far from Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the different fronts-nation novel. For instance, in Australia, what There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can be done with catch hold of the atmosphere of the Italian POWs brought into day and capture it, crafting an image of the country? The solution seems to be their use as cheap labourit stands in one particular moment. In To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this way Kate Dowdwould be embarrassingly inadequate: she's father agrees to take two onto his sheep farm in drought-ridden New South Walespractically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. Kate is initially wary She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the two men – Vittorio and Luca – but gradually she realises that not all dangers come from outside day into the lives of her community. Life on characters in a sheep station may be harsh way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but for Kate it's going to get a lot worseinstead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784741345</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jonathan Levi152915118X|title= SeptimaniaPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= First and foremost a tale ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of lovethree women: Sasha, Septimania delivers the frustrations Darley and Georgiana. Darley and agony of two people who find each other George are sisters and then lose each otherSasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, all on only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the same daytribe. But what a momentous day! Life takes Malory and Louisa off in totally different directions but strangely their paths cross again and again. Malory The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, searching to uncover his pastTilda, moves asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to Rome move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and discovers great Chip have renovated and incredible facts about his ancestry. Louisadownsized to another property, a brilliant mathematicianstreet or so away, is head hunted for which they own. They won'secret' work t need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and is signed up by her father for Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a life timechoice but that wasn's contract with t the American Governmentreality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She completely disappears from Malory's life and he has no way of knowing how to find her againliving in ''their'' family home. They are both trapped in their separate livesuse it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071565196X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)Critchley|title=The PortraitOne Puzzling Afternoon

|summary=Meet Pierre-Francois. He should I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by rights be an antiques dealer, as he made David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a fortune selling on his first collection (couple of erasers) while at school, years back and funded both his university and carnal education, with prostitutes, remember being absolutely floored by trading too. He is, however, a patent and intellectual property lawyer, how powerful and his wife is forever demanding a reduction in the space his collections take up in their flataffecting it was. But he still dabbles – although this latest visit to the showrooms will cause a lot of unexpected incident. In amongst the grot at a low-key sale he finds an ancient pastel, showing himself – It was a bewiggedgripping, antique version of himselfemotionally wounding read, even if, however, nobody else sees the connection between Pierre-Francois and the picture's subject. Still, as an effeminate uncle told him, ''real objects carry memory rereading my review of their past owners'' – and Pierre-Francois is intent it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on finding the truths behind those memoriesit. Little does he know just what he will discover…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910477435</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Virginie Despentes and Frank Wynne (translator)Lucy Ashe|title= Vernon Subutex 1Clara and Olivia|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Vernon Subutex The year is a wanted man1933. Following the death of Alex Bleach, VernonThe place? Sadler's generous benefactor Wells. Ballerinas Clara and publicly adored musicianOlivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, Vernon now has on the last recordings of Alexinside. And not on stage, either. Because there's drug induced ramblingsa lot that builds a dancer. Kicked out of his apartment the story follows Vernon as he couch surfs his way across ParisSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, pursued by journalists attention to detail – and media moguls desperate to cash in on Bleachsome things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don's deatht come from the classroom. Eventually finding himself out of luckA stage presence, friends and money Vernon is left sleeping rougha charm, half mad and forced to bear witness to a shocking act of violence''joie de vivre''. In The difference between a world of capricious friends hard-worker, and grasping avaricious journalists who can Vernon trust?a star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857055410</amazonuk>0861544080